US8412367B2 - Forming vehicle body models and other objects - Google Patents
Forming vehicle body models and other objects Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- US8412367B2 US8412367B2 US12/765,905 US76590510A US8412367B2 US 8412367 B2 US8412367 B2 US 8412367B2 US 76590510 A US76590510 A US 76590510A US 8412367 B2 US8412367 B2 US 8412367B2
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- modeling
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- dowel
- glue
- vehicle body
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- G—PHYSICS
- G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
- G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
- G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
- G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
- G05B19/18—Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form
- G05B19/4097—Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
- Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
- Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
Definitions
- the present specification generally relates to modeling objects, and more particularly to modeling of vehicle body models.
- a seating buck may be built, which is a full-size mockup of a vehicle's interior.
- a vehicle body model is built using one or more large blocks of a modeling material, such as modeling board that are rough cut by hand and glued together to form a monolith.
- the monolith of modeling material may then be machined to finally rough and finally finish the vehicle model to its final shape.
- These large monoliths can be difficult to handle given their size and shapes. Additionally, cutting and gluing up the large monoliths can require a large amount of time and material and may add to the machining time required.
- a computer-implemented method for rapidly forming a vehicle body model includes: (a) identifying a vehicle design using a computer; (b) determining sectioning data by sectioning the vehicle design into multiple virtual sections using a design program implemented on the computer; (c) providing a block of modeling material to a machine configured for machining the block; (d) the machine using the sectioning data determined in step (b) to machine the block into a modeling section corresponding to at least one of the virtual sections; (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for each of the virtual sections; and (f) assembling the modeling sections formed in step (d) to form the vehicle body model.
- a computer-implemented method for rapidly forming a vehicle body model includes: identifying a vehicle design using a computer; determining sectioning data by sectioning the vehicle design into multiple virtual sections using a design program implemented on the computer, the sectioning data being used by a machine to form multiple modeling sections that correspond to the multiple virtual sections; nesting the multiple modeling sections together to form the vehicle body model; and fixing the multiple modeling sections together once the vehicle body model is formed.
- FIG. 1 is a side view of a vehicle body model according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein;
- FIG. 2 is a top, perspective view of adjacent modeling sections side-by-side according to one or more embodiments shown and described;
- FIG. 3 is a detail, section view illustrating aligned dowel holes of adjacent modeling sections according to one or more embodiments shown and described;
- FIG. 4 illustrates a method for forming the vehicle body model of FIG. 1 according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein;
- FIG. 5 illustrates a method for assembling the vehicle body model of FIG. 1 according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.
- Embodiments described herein generally relate to modeling of vehicle body models.
- the modeling process utilizes relatively small sections or blocks of modeling material that are machined and then assembled to form the model.
- vehicle body model includes modeling of an entire vehicle body design or one or more portions of a vehicle body design including single components of a vehicle body design.
- a vehicle body model may be of only an interior and/or exterior of a vehicle design.
- a vehicle body model may be of only a particular component of a vehicle body design, such as a seat, steering column, floor, A-pillar, B-pillar, C-pillar, and the like.
- an exemplary vehicle body model 10 is illustrated in an assembled configuration.
- the vehicle body model 10 is in the form of an A-pillar of an automobile.
- the A-pillar of a vehicle is often the first pillar of the passenger compartment, usually surrounding the windscreen.
- the vehicle body model 10 includes a primary support member 12 , a secondary support member 14 and a mounting portion 16 that is mounted to a base 18 .
- the primary support member 12 and the secondary support member 14 both extend outwardly and vertically from the mounting portion 16 and intersect thereby forming the A-pillar shape.
- the mounting portion 16 may be fixedly mounted to the base 18 , for example, using adhesive and/or mechanical fasteners.
- the base 18 may be formed separate from the vehicle body model 10 , for example, the base may be a sheet of wood, metal, plastic, and the like.
- the vehicle body model 10 is formed of multiple modeling sections 20 that have been machined to their final shapes and assembled together.
- the modeling sections 20 are held together using adhesive that is received within intersecting glue channels 22 and 24 formed by aligning glue holes formed in each individual section 20 during the machining process.
- Dowel holes 26 may also be provided and aligned during the assembly process into which dowels may be inserted and used to interconnect the multiple modeling sections 20 .
- FIG. 2 illustrates adjacent modeling sections 20 a and 20 b .
- the adjacent modeling sections 20 a and 20 b each include an upper nesting surface 30 a and 30 b , a lower nesting surface 32 a and 32 b and one or more sidewalls 34 a and 34 b forming an outer periphery of the modeling sections 20 a and 20 b .
- the lower nesting surface 32 a of the modeling section 20 a in this example, is sized and configured to nest with the upper nesting surface 30 b of the modeling section 20 b.
- the glue holes 36 a and 36 b extend from the upper nesting surfaces 30 a and 30 b to the lower nesting surfaces 32 a and 32 b and are each arranged to align together when the modeling sections 20 a and 20 b are nested together.
- the dowel holes 26 a and 26 b may also extend from the upper nesting surfaces 30 a and 30 b to the lower nesting surfaces 32 a and 32 b and are each arranged to align together when the modeling sections 20 a and 20 b are nested together.
- one or more of the dowel holes 26 a and 26 b may extend only partially through the respective modeling section 20 a and 20 b . For example, referring briefly to FIG.
- the dowel hole 26 a may terminate within the modeling section 20 a , while the dowel hole 26 b may extend entirely through the modeling section 20 b .
- This can allow an appropriately sized dowel 37 to be inserted into the dowel hole 26 b and into the dowel hole 26 a such that the dowel 37 straddles both of the dowel holes 26 a and 26 b .
- the dowel 37 may then be glued into place using an adhesive material 38 . Any other suitable method of affixing the dowel 37 into place may be used such as using another type of filler material or a friction fit.
- a process 40 for forming the vehicle body model 10 is illustrated.
- a vehicle design saved in memory is identified.
- the vehicle design may be an entire vehicle, parts of the vehicle or just one or more components of the vehicle.
- the vehicle design is of the A-pillar of the vehicle.
- the vehicle design is divided into virtual sections using the design program thereby providing section information.
- the design program may include logic for determining the sectioning of the vehicle design, for example, based at least in part on the stock modeling material being used and the shape and dimension of the vehicle design being sectioned.
- the design program may allow a designer to section the vehicle design. As can be seen by FIG. 1 , in this example, the vehicle design may be sectioned horizontally. However, other vehicle designs may be sectioned vertically, horizontally and/or at some other angle between horizontal and vertical.
- the positions/paths of the glue channels 22 and 24 and the dowel holes 26 are determined and added to the vehicle design using the design program thereby providing glue hole location information and dowel hole location information at step 46 .
- the design program may include logic for determining the positions/paths of the glue channels 22 and 24 and/or the dowel holes 26 .
- the design program may allow the designer to determine the positions/paths of the glue channels 22 and 24 and/or the dowel holes 26 .
- fasteners may be used to fasten sections together rather than (or in addition to) the glue channels 22 and 24
- the design program may be used to determine the positions for the fasteners.
- preliminary blocks may be rough cut from the modeling material (e.g., by hand, water jet, etc.).
- the blocks may be cut from a board of the modeling material. Any suitable preliminary work may be performed on the blocks in preparation for machining.
- the blocks may then be set in a suitable machine, such as a CNC milling machine, which can utilize the section information, glue hole location information and dowel hole location information from the design program to machine each section.
- the CNC machine may be capable of machining multiple modeling sections simultaneously.
- final work may be done on the modeling sections, such as sanding.
- a method 54 of assembling the vehicle body model 10 is shown.
- the mounting portion 16 formed in the process 40 is secured to the base 18 .
- the dowels 36 are then added to the dowel holes 26 such that the dowels 36 extend outwardly from the dowel holes 26 of the mounting portion 16 .
- the next modeling section 20 is then nested against the mounting portion 16 with the dowel holes 26 of the next mounting section 20 receiving the dowels 36 at step 58 .
- Step 58 is repeated for each next modeling section 20 until the vehicle body model 10 is assembled.
- the adhesive material e.g., such as commercially available from ITW Plexus
- the adhesive material may be added to the glue channels 22 and 24 under pressure to force the adhesive material entirely through the channels 22 and 24 and/or a vacuum may be drawn at an opposite end of the glue channels 22 and 24 (e.g., through openings 62 in a bottom of the mounting portion 16 ) to pull the adhesive material through the channels 22 and 24 .
- the adhesive material may be allowed to set thus completing the vehicle body model.
- the above-described model making process can allow for rapid prototyping of full size vehicle body models by reducing the overall time required to create the vehicle body models. This reduction in time is accomplished by eliminating the time required to handle, cut and glue large blocks that are often set many times during machining.
- the milling machine used in the above-described model making process can be relatively small (e.g., 3-axis rather than 5-axis) and much of the lifting of the pre-machined blocks and modeling sections can be done manually instead of by hoist, for example.
- conformal glue channels any additional superstructure for supporting the vehicle body model can be reduced or eliminated, which can reduce overall cost. Updating portions of the vehicle body model can be accomplished quickly by remaking the one or more affected modeling sections prior to gluing or after gluing by cutting sections apart at the glue joint and adding a new glue channel to the new modeling section.
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- Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
- Toys (AREA)
Abstract
Description
Claims (18)
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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US12/765,905 US8412367B2 (en) | 2010-04-23 | 2010-04-23 | Forming vehicle body models and other objects |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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US12/765,905 US8412367B2 (en) | 2010-04-23 | 2010-04-23 | Forming vehicle body models and other objects |
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US20110264253A1 US20110264253A1 (en) | 2011-10-27 |
US8412367B2 true US8412367B2 (en) | 2013-04-02 |
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US12/765,905 Active 2031-06-23 US8412367B2 (en) | 2010-04-23 | 2010-04-23 | Forming vehicle body models and other objects |
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Cited By (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US20130037497A1 (en) * | 2011-08-09 | 2013-02-14 | Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. | Test Fixtures for Automotive Parts and Methods of Fabricating the Same |
US10853530B2 (en) * | 2012-10-17 | 2020-12-01 | Scania Cv Ab | System for systematic selection of vehicle specification |
US11534828B2 (en) * | 2017-12-27 | 2022-12-27 | Divergent Technologies, Inc. | Assembling structures comprising 3D printed components and standardized components utilizing adhesive circuits |
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2010
- 2010-04-23 US US12/765,905 patent/US8412367B2/en active Active
Patent Citations (19)
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US5231749A (en) | 1991-09-30 | 1993-08-03 | Hutchison John H | Method of making a unified interior and exterior design verification model |
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Cited By (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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US10853530B2 (en) * | 2012-10-17 | 2020-12-01 | Scania Cv Ab | System for systematic selection of vehicle specification |
US11534828B2 (en) * | 2017-12-27 | 2022-12-27 | Divergent Technologies, Inc. | Assembling structures comprising 3D printed components and standardized components utilizing adhesive circuits |
Also Published As
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US20110264253A1 (en) | 2011-10-27 |
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